She rode on my back, head resting on my shoulder, one arm looped over the other, legs swaying against the sure grip of my hands.
“Ankle feeling better?”
“Not yet,” she mumbled against me. I could feel her smile into my shirt; her lie amused her.
She’d run just fine after falling off the tower multiple times, but I hadn’t argued with her. I didn’t mind carrying her. Unlike Old Fang, she didn’t complain about my loping gait. I carried her into the mine, ducking through the open door. The cool draft from within blew across my skin, a welcome change from the warmth outside.
Frag was lying on his stomach on the main workbench, glowstones drawn down close. Jake, Akilah, and Fig leaned in around him, Fig on her toes, all looking at Frag’s wounds. Jake had his kit out, his tools in hand, and he was squinting, his tongue caught thoughtfully between his teeth.
Fig looked fine. Death did have that effect; I remembered from my own. She had a few fresh scars, but her woodgrain-patterned skin hid them well.
Jake plucked out a chunk of shrapnel with tweezers and tossed it into a dish. I let Elora off my back and went around to Jake’s side to look. Ew.
Frag’s blood was weird. Came with being a cyborg, I guess. An unwanted memory of seeing some of his insides—including his metal bones—popped up, and I pushed it aside quickly. I glanced in the dish. A dozen shark teeth were in there, and a small cluster of scraps from the exploding arrow.
“That sucked,” I commented. Frag’s eye opened, and he grunted an agreement.
“I’ve never died before. It was neat,” Fig said, grinning my way.
My eyelids stuttered. I coughed and replied, “I wouldn’t call it neat. Different. Sure.”
“I only have four lives now,” she pouted, plucking at a tear in Frag’s jumpsuit.
That made my blood turn cold. “What?”
“We’re real gladiators,” Jake’s tone was neutral but also held a gravity that felt wrong, coming from him. “We live and die by the sword. Or the gun. Or. You know, whatever kills us.”
“I don’t like that,” Akilah said, smoothing the other arm of Frag’s jumpsuit on her side of the bench.
I drew a long breath and glanced around the room.
“You can drop out. Return the tokens. You guys don’t have to do this with me,” I said.
Why was I doing this, anyway? Out of spite? That’s how it started. But there was so much in my life now, more than I ever had back on Earth.
Elora’s hand found mine. She leaned her chin on my arm and said, “I’m with you.”
That stirred a bounty of mixed feelings. I searched her gaze. That old temptation to just live this life dangled over my head again like a carrot. I had all that I could imagine wanting…
And that was the trap. I wasn’t the System’s fucking donkey.
Its lure was to exist forever. I knew what that meant. Become bored with the ones I love now and evolve into a thing as cold and cynical as Ashwynn, or be as lodged in the past as Urda. Maybe I’d eventually be as powerful as them, but at the price of being trapped in unchanging days. Unable to do one thing: truly live in a world that moved and grew, changed, and ended to make way for something new.
“I’m with you. There’s no reward without risk,” Jake said, tossing the last sliver of metal into the dish and setting the tweezers down.
“Me too. I like the arena,” Fig said. I glanced at her and wondered if concussions were a thing for avatars.
Which meant I had a concussion, too. I hated the arena… I liked it more. I wondered why Urda never went there, but then, maybe she had. Did she have one life left and chose to retire? I sure as shit wouldn’t ask her until I could take one of her punches.
Akilah looked at Frag, who shot me a thumbs up. I grinned. She folded her arms and huffed. “Somebody’s gotta make sure you fools keep your heads on straight. I’m still in. For now.”
I nodded. “We’ll be alright as long as we stick together. We did great on the first round. We’ll do even better next time.”
“You weren’t with us, so we couldn’t coordinate as we have in the past,” Frag said, pushing up onto his knees.
He was much more likeable when vulnerability cracked through his composure. Eased some of the stoicism. Frag shoved his arms into his jumpsuit and zipped up. He was the only one who looked like a mess, bloodied in battered, torn clothing. Jake and Fig had probably respawned at Fig’s place. Frag had respawned here, alone.
“You guys did alright,” I said. “You got ‘capped to everyone else’s level, and you won with only one fatality.”
“We did magnificently,” Fig said proudly, her chin lifting.
“In the real world, that would have been one fatality too much,” Akilah said, fingers tapping on her arm.
“Yes,” I agreed. “I guess we’ll have to drill scenarios where I’m not there. If I die in the Arena, you might lose contact. Dunno. Bodies stay in during the fight.”
That got me thinking. Not that I wanted to die on purpose to test the theory. Still, as things stood, they could have the same benefits if I were there and dead. I was their router, after all. I kinda hoped that would stay a mystery, despite wanting to know.
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I looked at their numbers. Everyone had made it to ten. Except Elora. She was still leaning against me, so I ran a hand over her hair, my lips tightening. She’d be in a scenario by herself. There was no guessing what she’d face. They were randomized events.
“Elora’s going in alone, this time,” I said, glancing to my right.
The little elf’s hand squeezed mine, the usual twinkle in her eyes dimming. She took in a steadying breath and nodded. “I guess it’s time to get serious.”
“Let’s put together some resources and twink her out.” I shifted to face her. “You need to engage every advantage you can. If you get a team, you have to assess them, which I know you will, and protect yourself. If you get into a scenario like Veliyarix, do what that satyr did—hide if you’re the only one left. Better to lose and live.”
“I—I do have one thing I can do. I just haven’t,” she admitted.
I raised a brow. Frag turned and sat crosslegged on the workbench, facing her. Jake leaned forward curiously. Akilah’s head tilted, brow arched.
Fig tapped the side of her nose and sing-songed, “I think I know what it i-is.”
Elora covered her eyes and sighed, “I guess I’ll just show you.”
At first, nothing happened. Then she shrank rapidly, a green fog whirled up around her diminishing form. When it was gone, a chipmunk was sitting on the floor. A squeaking noise almost like hysterical laughter rose from the tiny creature.
A lopsided grin pressed against my tusks. “Cute.”
In party chat, Elora cried, “It’s useless! I’m so small! The world is so big and scary like this!”
“I disagree,” Akilah said. She’d come around the workbench.
Frag leaned forward, bending nearly in half to look at the floor. “That’s a stealth advantage. It’s not offensive or defensive, so it doesn’t give an alert. You didn’t lose your name tag, but it’s so small, it would be difficult to see for anyone but sharpshooters and birds.”
Green smoke whirled as her tiny form disappeared, and she grew back to herself again. My mouth kept twitching, though I tried to control it. Elora looked around with a nervous, hopeful look—until she got to me. She saw the smirk I was trying to hide. Her nose scrunched. She scowled, swatting my arm.
“Stop it.”
I shook my head and grinned wider. “Should I leave nuts at your house?”
“I’ll chippie-stealth into your house and leave you some nuts in your bed,” she snapped.
I chuckled at her flustered nonsense. She swatted me again. The chipmunk thing really embarrassed her for some reason. I guess I would have been embarrassed, too. Maybe. Frag had it right, of course. Great stealth move.
“Elora needs a new bow, better arrows, and, if we can find anything in the market to enhance her Tangle or improve her Aim, Arc Arrow, and Clean Kill procs, we need to get it. The Arena doesn’t summon more than once a day. We have time.”
We went to market. It was a walk. Getting around Convergent City wasn’t too bad until it came to the areas on the other side of the mountain. I sighed and looked up at the sky. No giant hawk, though the sun was on its downward arc. I yelled at the little blue star, throwing a fist in the general direction of the System, which was literally everywhere.
“You know, most games have portals or waystones for easy travel!”
“Walking is boring,” Elora said, agreeing.
“I’m working on it,” Akilah said, hands sagely tucked into her sleeves.
“Walking is feeling,” Fig said, skipping forward to touch a roadside flower. We’d rounded the mountain and were in view of the Labyrinth walls and the grand trees of Heartland. She turned around, flower in hand. She tucked it into her hair and looked at us. “This isn’t boring. Let’s sing something.”
I hadn’t thought of it like that. Unless we happened upon a herd of centaurs we could bribe for a ride or catch a ride on the rare supply wagon, we may as well enjoy it for what it was. No one was trying to kill us time.
“Grab your tambourine, Fig, I have one!” Elora said, “I’m gonna be five hundred miles. The Proclaimers.”
She bounced forward to link arms with Fig and gave her a rundown of the lyrics. Fig, a freakishly quick study for music, picked it up right away, and soon the two were skipping along, belting out the tune while Fig kept the beat, tambourine tapping against her thigh.
I felt the cheer seep into me. Still, someone had to keep their eyes on the sky and their head in the game. Jake joined in singing with his weirdo demon voice. Akilah smiled, her gaze relaxed. She joined in after the next chorus. Frag and I stayed quiet, trailing behind the four would-be troubadours.
The Grand Market, with all its colorful awnings and chaotically arranged kiosks, was still bustling when we got there. We split again into our usual twos. Jake and Fig went to look for perk accessories, Akilah and Frag went to find Elora the perfect bow, and we went to look for good armor. She barely had any, preferring mobility.
There were a handful of armor shops, a few of them featuring made-in-world, most were System kiosks. I felt like I was choosing between mom-and-pop shops and big business, standing there at the end of the lane, looking at the different options on my minimap. Elora glanced this way and that, then darted towards a kiosk with a plain tarp and simple wooden poles.
Mom and Pop it was. I followed and stood by one of the rough-hewn poles, watching her approach the long-bearded individual sitting at a workbench, tooling leather. They talked while I scanned the walls. Leather didn’t have the stopping power of kevlar or other composite materials.
“You could get kevlar…”
“No,” Elora said, looking back at me with a squint, then faced the dwarf again.
He glanced up at me, his features cragged and crinkled, the color of red clay. “Well then, what manner of being are you?”
“Half-orc,” I said, my voice gruff at the question.
“A half-orc? Never heard the like. Fascinating. And you’re with an elf? This world, this world…” he chuckled in a jovial way.
Elora blushed, a small smile tugging the corners of her mouth. Did he mean it like that? I hadn’t thought about it until I saw her cheeks go pink. My brows furrowed, but I said nothing. I couldn’t care less about what people thought about us, no matter what was going on in their heads.
“Composite material is better, unless you can get something enchanted or upgraded,” I said, doubling down.
“I want natural material,” Elora replied and glanced at something best described as bikini armor.
“You saw what happened to Frag when Shivrith got him…”
“I’m just looking! Go away!”
I huffed and backed off. I didn’t go away; I just shut my mouth. She was only looking, after all. She hadn’t decided to buy anything yet. Besides, there was no ‘natural’ or synthetic material in a place that was made by a virtual reality system. I found myself musing over the exchange.
Beneath the annoyance that she wasn’t listening, there was something else. Anxiety. I only wanted her to be safe. Going over the exchange again—if anyone had said anything like that to me… I was treating her like a child.
The idea of any one of them being alone in a situation like that stressed me out. I hoped I’d handle it better if there was a next time. None of them were stupid or childish, not after all we’d been through. Ugh. Feelings were annoying.
When she made her purchase and faced me, I said bluntly, “Sorry. I’m just stressed about what’s coming. What did you get?”
Elora beamed and slipped her arm around mine. “I’ll be fine.”
“No, but what did you get, though?”
Her smile was sly, but her eyes were angry. How—what was the response for that?
“Lingerie, because why have armor to cover your skin when you can go in naked… like you?” She snarked, poking my side, right where it would be bare if I’d been wearing my armor.
I grunted at the jab. Fair. My culture’s way of showing scars wasn’t exactly battle-safety. My culture? I exhaled, letting go of the transmigration confusion paradox I’d stepped into, and said unsarcastically, “Pick on me relentlessly. I earned it.”
Elora paused thoughtfully, then huffed, “It’s less fun when you have permission.”
I looked at the canvas bundle she slung over her shoulder.
She slid her arm around mine and pushed until I started moving. “I promise, I’ll be fine.”
I wanted to believe her.
-ARCHIVE-
? Featured Web Novel ?
Hordes of Tartarus [Isekai / LitRPG]
LitRPG Isekai Progression Mythos Action
Vincent washes up on an Ancient Greek island under attack after a drunk selfie gone wrong. To survive, he must fight mythical creatures, level up fast, and upgrade the hamlet’s defenses before the next wave of horrors is unleashed upon the islanders.
But holding the line isn’t enough. Vincent must also complete quests, clear dungeons, and learn new skills if he wants to stand a chance against the escalating threats.
Beyond the island, the Titans have escaped Tartarus and wage war against the Gods who once enchained them. Gates to the Underworld rupture across the lands, unleashing horrors meant to wipe out humankind. And rumors say the Gods are losing.
Can Vincent, through increasingly brutal foes, unpredictable bosses, and precarious bonds with the islanders, emerge victorious against the Hordes of Tartarus?
What to Expect
Quests Kingdom Building Mythic Beasts Epic Worldbuilding
- Weak-to-Strong progression with skills, loot, and leveling
- Greek mythos with heroes, monsters, dungeons, bosses, and escalating challenges
- Island defense and strategic kingdom-building
- Evolving alliances and personal bonds that shape the journey
- Worldbuilding depth with Gods, Titans, and consistent action-driven adventure